*POST UPDATED OCTOBER 2026.
Hello friends, happy Wednesday! I’m chasing my tail a bit here, but I’m finally getting around to sharing the follow up to my first Luxembourg post: Visiting Vianden, the prettiest little town! Vianden is located in the north of Luxembourg, and it’s home to the biggest castle in the whole country! During our three-day stint in Luxembourg back in January, Boyfriend & I decided to make the journey to Vianden for a half-day trip. Factoring in the travel time – around 1-hour each way – it’s not exactly ideal if you’re looking for a hassle-free trip, but it was definitely, one hundred percent worth it! We loved our time in this pretty little town!
You guessed it: heaps of information listed below! For ease, I’ve divided everything into the following categories: five fun facts / before you visit / getting there / where to have coffee + pastries / what to see + do.
Enjoy!
five fun facts
Seeing as this post is quite a bit smaller than my Luxembourg City blog post, I thought it’d be cool to share a few fun facts I learned about the country while researching for this trip! Dum-dum-dum-da:
Luxembourg is landlocked by three different countries. France to the south, Belgium to the west & north, and Germany to the east.
Luxembourg is the 7th smallest country in Europe! Beaten only by Andorra, Malta, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco, and Vatican City; it’s tiny! If you were to drive from the very north of the country to the very south, it would only take you an hour and a half! And we thought Ireland was small – pssht!
at the time of our visit, Luxembourg is the richest country in the world. It is known for high income levels & low unemployment rates.
Luxembourg is the only Grand Duchy in the world. I actually had no clue what this meant before visiting, but now I can share my knowledge! A Grand Duchy is a country whose official head of state is a monarch bearing the title of Grand Duke or Grand Duchess. This is different from a Kingdom, which is run by a King or Queen, like the UK.
Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel was the first serving EU leader – and only the second in the whole world! – to marry a same-sex partner. The two married in 2015, less than a year after Luxembourg legalized same-sex marriages.
Some pretty cool stuff!
before you visit
Just a few quick things to consider if you’re thinking about visiting Vianden!
Vianden is a tiny little town with just over 2,000 inhabitants. The streets are winding and charming, lined with pastel coloured houses and cute cafés. Quiet, quaint, picturesque, and ultimately: lovely. With this in mind, Vianden is very much a day-trip destination; perhaps somewhere to spend a long afternoon pottering around. Due to transport timing, we spent less than 2-hours in town, but I honestly don’t feel like we missed out on much.
many attractions in Vianden are covered under the Luxembourg Card. Main sights included are: entry to the castle, rides on the chairlift to/from the Castle, and entry to the Victor Hugo museum. The card covers attractions country-wide and, if more places in Luxembourg City had been opened during our visit, we probably would’ve opted for it ourselves!
from our own personal experience, Vianden very much seems to be a summer town. Many businesses and restaurants were closed when we visited in January, but I’ve read online that during peak summer months – aka: peak hiking months! – it comes alive. Just something to take into consideration!
getting there
Here’s the thing about visiting Vianden: there is no direct route between there and Luxembourg City. Which, by the way, is just mind-boggling, because Vianden is one of the top tourist destinations in the whole country, but I digress. With a little bit of planning and forethought, it really isn’t that hard to get there – it’s just one train and one bus away from Luxembourg City. These are the steps we took to get to Vianden:
first, we took a train from Gare Luxembourg to Gare Ettelbruck. This is a regional train that departs once every 30-minutes going towards Diekirch Gare, and it took 40-minutes on the button to arrive at Ettelbruck. Note: on Sundays this train only runs once an hour, so be sure to double-check the timetable!
from Ettelbruck, we took the #570 bus all the way to Vianden. The bus leaves from just outside the train station, going in the direction of Obereisenbach, and takes 25-minutes. As with our bus journey in Luxembourg City, the ride is very straightforward with the stops clearly marked on a screen inside the bus. Note: again, on Sundays this bus only runs once an hour, so be sure to double-check the timetable.
See, it’s not that bad! If you time it right, the wait between getting off the train and onto the bus should only be about 15-minutes – which is way more than you’ll need to locate the bus stop.
